1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of power electronics. More specifically, the present invention relates to several newly improved versions of the emitter turn-off thyristors and their drive circuits.
2. Background Description
The gate turn-off (GTO) thyristor is a four-layer semiconductor device of the structure PNPN, usually fabricated on a single wafer up to six inches in diameter. In the on-state it exhibits a latching behavior which enables it to achieve very low conduction loss at a high current density. Unfortunately, this latched state causes problems when the device turns off. This is because some parts of the die (cells) remain latched even when the anode voltage begins to rise, leading to a poor safe operating area (SOA). A bulky snubber capacitor is required to protect the GTO thyristor during the turn-off process. The discharge of this snubber capacitor requires significant power dissipation by a resistor or the use of complex energy recovery circuits, leading to increased system size and complexity. Turning the GTO thyristor off requires a gate current equal to approximately one fifth to one third of the anode current which must be supplied for a long time by the gate driver.
The turn-off performance of the conventional GTO thyristor can be dramatically improved by driving the gate current to be greater than or equal to the anode current during turn-off. In this condition, referred to as unity-gain or hard-driven, the upper NPN transistor turns off very quickly while the GTO thyristor is still in the conduction state. If this transistor is completely off before the PNP portion of the thyristor turns off, then there is no positive feedback loop present during the voltage rise phase. The PNP transistor with the base open is very robust, especially compared to the latched turn-off of a GTO thyristor. When the unity gain condition is satisfied the current distribution is very uniform across the entire die during the turn-off transient. This gives a much larger SOA than the GTO thyristor has. One of the devices that can achieve unity-gain turn-off is an emitter turn-off (ETO) thyristor as disclosed in application Ser. No. 09/486,779.
FIG. 1A shows the ETO thyristor equivalent circuit, and FIG. 1B shows the cross section of the ETO thyristor mechanical structure. The ETO thyristor has an additional switch 11 in series with the cathode of the GTO thyristor. The cathode of the GTO thyristor 10 is the emitter of the internal NPN transistor, so the series switch 11 is referred to as the emitter switch. Turning off this switch applies a high transient voltage long enough to commutate the current from the cathode to the gate of the GTO thyristor 10 so that unity-gain is achieved. An additional switch 12 is connected to the gate of the GTO thyristor, and is complementary to the emitter switch. These switches are implemented with many paralleled low-voltage voltage, high-current metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs).
However, when an anode short GTO thyristor or a transparent emitter GTO thyristor is used to build the ETO thyristor (this is the usual condition), there will be a parasitic diode present from gate to anode of the GTO thyristor. When used in high power voltage source converters, the ETO thyristor is usually connected with its anti-parallel freewheeling diode to form a switch that can block unidirectional voltage and conduct bi-directional current. When the anti-parallel diode conducts current, the parasitic diode of the ETO thyristor may also come into conduction if the voltage drop of the path through the ETO thyristor is comparable to that of the freewheeling diode. In other words, there is a parasitic reverse current conduction path in the ETO thyristor. This is likely to occur during both the ETO thyristor gated xe2x80x9conxe2x80x9d and the ETO thyristor gated xe2x80x9coffxe2x80x9d conditions. If the ETO thyristor starts to block the positive voltage right after its parasitic diode conducting current, the ETO thyristor failure may occur due to the poor reverse recovery performance of the ETO thyristor""s parasitic diode.
Also, when the ETO thyristor turns off, there is a current which is equal to the anode current flow through the gate stray inductor. In this condition, a resonant process may occur involving the stray inductance of the gate loop, the junction capacitance of the GTO thyristor, and the recovering diode of the ETO thyristor""s emitter switch. When the resonant current flow is into the gate and out of the cathode of the GTO thyristor, it may initiate a retriggering of the GTO thyristor, which leads to turn-off failure.
Additionally, it can be seen from FIG. 1B that the gate switch and the emitter switch are all mounted on the copper disc. This mechanical structure makes the ETO thyristor difficult to produce.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to supply a family of improved emitter turn-off (ETO) thyristors that eliminate the reverse current path, are more reliable to switch, and have an improved housing, allowing it to be produced more easily.
A further purpose of this invention is to provide efficient drive circuits for the ETO thyristors. The drive circuit can block the turn-on command during the time when the anti-parallel diode conducting current. This function can save energy for the drive circuit and improve reliability of the ETO thyristor in a pulse width modulated (PWM) converter application condition.
Furthrmore, this invention provides a self-powered ETO dirve method. Using this method, no individual power input is needed for the driving circuit. This self-powered ETO thyristor and its drive circuit greatly improve the reliability and reduce the cost.
According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided an emitter turn-off thyristor comprising a gate turn-on (GTO) thyristor, a first switch, the drain of the first switch being connected to the cathode of the GTO thyristor, and a second switch connected between the gate of the GTO thyristor and the source of the first switch. The first switch consists of a number of paralleled metal oxide semiconductor field effects transistors (MOSFETs). The anode of the GTO thyristor and the source of the first switch serve as the annode and the cathode, respective, of the emitter turn-off thyristor. The emitter turn-off thyristor has four control electrodes; the gate of the GTO thyristor, the control electrode of the second switch, the gate of the first switch, and the cathode of the GTO thyristor.
In a first embodiment, the second switch consists of a number of paralleled MOSFETs. In addition, the MOSFETs are connected series with a diode. The diode serves to block current from the source of the second switch to the anode of the GTO thyristor.
In a second embodiment, the second switch consists of a number of paralleled insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs). The collector of the second switch is connected to the gate of the GTO thyristor, and the emitter of the second switch is connected to the source of the first switch.
In a third embodiment, the second switch consists of a series circuit of a switch and a capacitor. There is a first diode connected in parallel with the switch, and the second diode connected in parallel with the capacitor.
In a fourth embodiment, a series circuit of a first diode and a capacitor, and this series circuit being connected in parallel with the first switch. The voltage across the first switch will be clamped by the capacitor during the turn-off transient. The power stored in the capacitor can be used to drive for the control circuit of the ETO thyristor.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a novel ETO thyristor current sensing circuit and a new over-current detection circuit. The output of the current sensing circuit can be used for current control purpose and the output of the over-current detection circuit can be used for over-current protection purpose.
In addition to the family of improved emitter turn-off thyristors and their drive circuits, it is another object of the invention to provide an improved housing of the ETO thyristor. This improved housing, in addition to providing better operation of the ETO thyristor, is designed in such a way as to make it easier to manuracture.